Modification Making my Lizard King (Iplehouse EID / SOOM Monzo hybrid) [Complete: 11/26/2016 - Pending revisions]

Edit: Check this post on page 3 for revised information about this project!

When I began looking for a doll that was "just right" for me several years ago, I knew I wanted it to be a resin embodiment of my favorite roleplaying character ever - Rune.
While I'm incapable of drawing characters as buff as I mean them to be, when I saw Iplehouse's EID bodies, it was love at first sight! And moreover, it was perfect for what I wanted for Runey. Or... Almost perfect. You see, there was just one tiiiny little detail that didn't match up with the resin body I'd given him...

Runey isn't human. He was gifted with an amulet in his youth that allows him to masquerade in a human form, but at the end of the day, when the jewelry comes off, he's a reptile. Okay, still more man than lizard, but nonetheless, he's not human!

When I saw SOOM Monzo's feet and they were a dead ringer for how I've been drawing Rune's feet for the past decade (and some change), I was giddy! I joined a split right away. While the feet were perfect, the pillow-top rippling muscles of the Mega Gem body didn't match what I had in mind. The EID body was still perfect. Of course, there was the minor issue of the Mega Gem's knees being completely different from the those of the Iplehouse EIDs, but if there's one thing I've learned from DoA, it's that with enough dedication, any idea can work out.
I already knew I wanted to keep his human parts to swap on and off, so I'll have to figure out some way to do his forearms and hands from scratch.

Now that we've had a few warm days in a row, I was finally able to slink outside with my tools and get started. I'll have to go slowly, as I have to fit the project in around a busy work schedule, but with any luck, I'll be able to give His Royal Moodiness the kind of body I really want him to have... and maybe that outfit I drew him wearing, too.

So, first things first!

Day 1:

Reluctantly, I unstring my big boy so I can fit his new calves to his thighs as I work. He'll be spending a good while unstrung, now, but I'm sure he'll forgive me. Then I gather my tools:

- A battery-powered Dremel with aluminum oxide grinding bits
- A good sharp pencil and a kneaded eraser
- Clothes I don't mind getting messy
- A half-mask respirator
- Military issue eye protection (Probably overkill, but better safe than sorry!)
- A nosy cat to knock all my tools out of order
- A bucket and water
- A back yard to work in!

With a drill fully charged, I outline the basics of what I plan to do.

IMGP1578 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

SOOM Monzo knee is on the left, Iplehouse EID knee on the right. Looks like it should be pretty simple. Since I only have one pair of hands and my husband worked today, I have no pictures of the work actually being done, but all you'd see would be billowing clouds of resin dust anyway! Did I mention nobody warned me how, er, DUSTY resin dust is?

I get an odd look or two from my neighbors, marching outside with contraptions on my head and a drill in hand, but as soon as I explain I'm just working on Rune's new legs, they give me the thumbs-up and put their dogs inside. After all, it's a windy day, and nobody should be exposed to resin dust - Man or beast.

IMGP1581 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

After a good long while of Dremeling, I rinse off the first piece and bring it back inside to check it against the EID thigh. The front is close to where I want it, and fits inside the thigh now, but now the back is a problem. I end up having to take off a lot more resin than I expected, to make it fit from front to back.
So we're back out with the grinding bit.

After a solid hour of grinding, from the beginning to where I am now, my poor Dremel decides an hour is enough, and the battery needs to be recharged. But by now, the difference between the modded knee and the unmodded knee are pretty substantial.

IMGP1585 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

I want to keep a notch in the back of the knee to help lock the joint for standing, since I won't be able to fit the EID knee piece in. I'd only just started to carve in a new notch when my Dremel gave up, so I give the pieces a good washing to get rid of any stray dust (Since I had both leg parts out there with me.)

Then I check it against the EID thigh again.

IMGP1587 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Looking good!
I can see now that I'll need to add some epoxy to the knee to bring it out level with the EID knee part, and I'll also need to fill in some of that gap there, at the back of the knee. And build up a little ledge for the new notch that will lock the joint in place.

IMGP1588 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

A peek at the back shows I'll also need to fill in a lot of space to either side of the knee. I've only a little left of the Tamiya smooth surface epoxy putty that a coworker gave me, but it may be enough to do one leg, and I suppose I'll pick up some Milliput to try for the other. I've never used any epoxies other than Tamiya, and I've never used that on a BJD, so it's a good time for experimenting!

Alas, by the time my Dremel is charged again, it will be too dark and too cold and too rainy to go back outside to finish the subtractive parts of this mod job, so it will have to wait until the next non-rainy, non-cold day that I have an afternoon off work.

 

Oh, that's a good idea! ^^ I should have just enough of the Tamiya epoxy left to do the visible mods with that, too.
The Tamiya epoxy is a light, kind of minty looking green, so I'll likely have to recruit a resin-friend to do some airbrushing for me to make it match. It's kinda funny that I'll be using green epoxy on the knee, which is supposed to be flesh-tone, and then painting the flesh-tone BELOW the knee to make it green.

I hate that I'm at a standstill because of the weather. I'm off work early this afternoon and evening, and I'm off tomorrow... and wouldn't you know it, it's raining now and it's going to snow all night! Having to wait to work on mods is like having to wait for my doll all over again. D:

 

Day 2:

52 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I couldn't have asked for more glorious weather for my birthday!
It snowed last night, big, fat, puffy flakes, but by noon it had all melted away. With a camera and drill both fully charged, I took advantage of my special "me" day and the lovely weather, and tromped outside to work.

Now that I knew what to do, how much pressure to use and what the fastest way to strip resin off was, it took MUCH less time to grind the other knee part down.
One thing I found especially fascinating while working was how asymmetrical Monzo's knees actually are! The shape of them once ground down is quite different... To me, it's one more beautiful thing about the dolls, that shows how much love and effort goes into sculpting them.

And now...

IMGP1592 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

I do believe the subtractive part of this mod job is done! The knee is still a little rough in a few places, but since I'll be re-shaping it with epoxy, I'm not really worried about that. What little roughness is still there will be easy to remove by hand sanding, once I'm finished with the additive part of the modding process.

Just for fun, I slip the foot on to get a better idea of how it's going to look all together.
IMGP1594 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

The feet are already painted, as you can see... I did it when I was testing a number of various sealants. Because I'm too silly to NOT test potentially harmful sealants on expensive LE parts.
I have a few spots I'm going to touch up on them, but overall I like the uneven mottling that I ended up with, because I'm far too lazy to draw on individual scales, and I really didn't want to settle for flat coloration.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how it's going so far.

But when I stand it up...

IMGP1597 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

I think I may have made the angle on the front of the knee part a liiittle too steep, since his thigh tilts farther forward than I meant for it to. Not a problem, though, since I have to build up the front to sit flush with the EID thigh part anyway! I'm going to wait until I have all my epoxy here to do the additive modding. As proof that my mother loves me and supports this hobby, when I told her what I was planning, she ordered a one-pound tub of Apoxie Sculpt for me, and it's already on its way! ^_^

While I'm waiting for my Apoxie Sculpt to get here, though, I guess I'll have to find something else to work on...

IMGP1599 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

So Runey's human parts get a subtle blushing, and his arms get strung back on. It's not as yellow in reality as it looks in that picture. Incandescent lights are horrible for doll photography!

As a matter of taste, I've decided to forgo the maze of lash scars he's got on his back, from one of many adventures that've gone awry. The only scar he'll keep will be his namesake scar on his left hand, which I suppose I'll sculpt into the hand when I make it.

 

Day 3:

I was very surprised when I got home from work and saw a box sitting at my side door. That was some crazy fast shipping, because my Apoxie Sculpt is already here. ^^

While I've used epoxy before, it's only been for things like repairing broken objects, filling in cracks or gaps, things like that. I've never sculpted anything in my life, so I refuse to accept blame for the horrifying results. XD

I cut up a plastic bag and laid it on the table so things wouldn't stick, and fortunately for me, I'd gotten a little set of sculpting tools already. You know, just to be sure.

IMGP1620 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

I give my tools intelligent and practical sounding names, since I don't know what any of them are called. Names like kabob stick, smoothy-spoon, cutty thing, triangle cutty thing, and flat stick-thingy.

IMGP1621 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

I think it's funny that "white" Apoxie is actually kind of a greeny-gray. At this point I haven't really got a plan in mind, other than raising the lip I carved and making it a bit deeper so it'll sit flush with the EID thigh. It's stickier than I expected. For the first half hour or so it was nearly impossible for me to get it to stick to the resin instead of my fingers. But after that it started, er, thickening... Setting up, I supppose, as it became more workable and actually released itself from my fingertips when I tried to pull my hands away.

IMGP1622 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Unfortunately, the Apoxie Sculpt is so heavy that when I tried to put it on as thick as it needs to be to make the Monzo leg as big around at the knee as the EID leg is, it started to sag under its own weight. So it'll have to be split into two layers, I suppose. Hopefully that won't affect the strength of the finished product. It shouldn't need too much more put on, so once I've taken off enough that it stopped sagging, I do some quick smoothing with a wet fingertip, then smooth the edges where it meets resin with the smoothy-spoon.

IMGP1625 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

My husband's puppy thought it would be nice to chase her tail under the table while I was taking a picture, so when she hit the table leg at the last second, my picture came out blurry.
I'd mixed enough Apoxie at first that I was able to do almost the whole second knee with nice, cooperative clay. I eventually did run out of what I'd mixed, though, so I had to mash a bit more together to finish up, and I ended up having more than what I'd meant to make. Silly Myuuchan... If I need a piece the size of a marble, that doesn't mean I should mix two pieces the size of marbles.

IMGP1626 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

The first layer of Apoxie Sculpt is about as thick as I can make it on either one without it sagging, so I take the leftovers and mash it into a little block that can be the base for one of his new hands. That way nothing goes to waste, and I figure it'll be easier for me to build onto a starting block than trying to sculpt the whole hand at once.

Now it's time to wait until it's dry, so I can check the fit and figure out how much more needs to be added on.

 

@Ayas-Shadow: Bulking it up was the hardest part I think. It was really hard to guesstimate how much needed to go where, and it wasn't until I was done with the second one that I realized that I could have just put plastic over the Apoxie and mashed it up into the joint to get it into a perfect shape. D'oh! Oh well, that's how you learn, right?

@RougeSoul: Aww, thanks ^^ He's always going to be my favorite character, I think - He has a special place in mine and my husband's hearts. In a roundabout, confusing sort of way, Runey's the reason that we ended up together. XD


I hope no one minds the frequent picture-spam... I'm excited because this is my first modding project, and I'm getting things done a lot more quickly than I expected I would. This past week, work and the weather have both been extra cooperative!
My boss let me go home early, so after I got something to eat, I sat down to work some more. So...!

Day 4:

Remember what I said about the Apoxie Sculpt being so heavy that it was sagging under its own weight?
When I woke up this morning and slipped the knee into the thigh piece, I discovered it had still sagged after I removed extra weight...

IMGP1628 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

...and the knee no longer fit! Ugh!!

So before I could finish adding to the knee, I had to take one of my husband's knives and carve off what had changed shape, in order to make it fit again.
So I carved...

IMGP1632 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

and I carved...

IMGP1633 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

...and after about half an hour of carving, it fit again. So then all that was left to do was fill in that little gap, and finish adding epoxy to make it flush.
I found myself much more proficient with the clay today. I guess I learned a lot through trial and error yesterday. Before I knew it...

IMGP1627 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

The last of the addition to his legs was done!! All that's left to do to them is sand it smooth, and set up a resin play-date with a friend from work. She was surprised when I told her I was modding an ABJD. And I was surprised when she knew what they were! I shouldn't be, though - She works with a lot of resin models and is about as big of a geek as me, so it makes perfect sense. ^_^
Weather permitting, I should be able to sand down the knees tomorrow, and hopefully some time next week we'll be able to get them airbrushed.

But just because his legs are done doesn't mean he is. There's still a lot for me to do. That leftover piece of Apoxie I'd mashed into a squarish lump started its transformation into a four-fingered hand, and I made a second squarish lump for his other hand.

IMGP1637 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Because his hands are so large and the Apoxie Sculpt was being so floppy, I decided it would be best to do just a little at a time... so I'll be putting his fingers on in sections, ending at the joints. I would have loved to make him jointed hands, but I know I'm nowhere near that advanced, so for now I'll practice, and give him solid fingers. ^^

 

Ohhh... Yeah. It was a lot easier for me with this project I guess, since I got the fantasy lower legs and all to mod. I probably wouldn't want to mod LE parts if it wasn't something as simple as a knee joint.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about his arms. The hands have to be sculpted from scratch, of course, but I know I won't have enough Apoxie to do both arms, and not enough money at the moment to order more. ^^;; Although if he wears long sleeves, I can probably safely make do for a while with just his lizard-hands, and figure something out for his forearms later!

I worked a little today, but nothing picture-worthy. I'm going to wait until after dinner to continue working on his hands, since I want to be sure I can sit down and have enough time to use up all the Apoxie Sculpt I mix before it hardens!

I sanded down his new knees, and they fit just beautifully. It's not perfectly smooth, though, so I may go back and fill in a few ripples and indentations and then re-sand once that's dry.

I tried stringing his new legs on, just to see what would happen... One thing is for sure, I won't be able to use the same elastic for his human and lizard parts. It was so taut that it pulled his knees up into a bent position and they wouldn't go back down!
Fortunately, Iplehouse sent extra S-hooks and elastic with him when I bought him, and it looks like the piece of elastic they sent is the perfect length for his new parts. Thank you, Iplehouse!

And stringing him up experimentally showed me a few problems to solve, too. One is that I need to make the ledge on the back of his knee for locking the joint a little higher and a little deeper, or else he won't be able to stand up.

One of the feet was drilled crooked, too, so an S-hook won't work in the bottom of that foot - It slides up into the hole for the elastic and gets stuck there. I already figured that one out, though. I found some small key rings around the house that fit in the bottom of his feet perfectly, and just attached the S-hooks to those. ^^ I'll probably check the jewelry supplies at work to see if I can get a thicker, solid ring to use.

 

Day 5:

Whew! It's been a while, hasn't it? My work schedule has been rough lately, and the weather was frigid for a while, so I couldn't get outside to where it was safe to do the rest of the sanding.
It's a very small update today, but it feels big to me after more than two weeks of biding my time, waiting for the weather to warm up! Thank goodness the groundhog predicted an early spring. ^^

I finished sanding the mods on the legs today, and you know what that means... Time to start painting! Soon his legs will be beautifully flesh-tone and a lovely forest green.

IMGP1646 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Wh... wh... what?

I know, that's probably what you're thinking. That's not fleshtone OR green!
That, of course, is step one of painting: Resin primer!
A friend of mine works with a lot of resin, just like what our lovely dolls are made of, and she swears by the stuff. I expressed my concern about the upcoming airbrushing job chipping off, and she said that if I primed it first, it would make the paint job substantially more durable.
What's extra helpful is that it's a sandable primer, so any imperfections in my sanding will be made glaringly obvious, and then I'll be able to sand it down a little more, re-coat with primer, and then I'll be passing his legs off to my resin-friend so she can work her beautiful, beautiful airbrush magic.
I know it looks really dark, but really - After butchering his legs like I've already done, I don't think I have to be worried about a little staining!

With any luck, the finishing touch sanding for his legs will be something I can finish before it gets dark today, but I won't hold my breath since the primer takes about 3 hours to dry.

While waiting for the legs to dry enough that I could turn them over and prime the other side, I finally added the second segment of the fingers to the one hand I started:

IMGP1647 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

So far, I think it's turning out okay. It's a little rough and will need some real careful sanding when it's done, but it's very close to being the right size, and for my first time trying to sculpt something, I think it's turning out fairly well. Still left to do is adding the third segment of the fingers, then his claws, and then adding another very thin layer of Apoxie over the top of it all to bulk up the overall size, as it's just a teeny tiny bit smaller than what it needs to be. Then it'll need a ball joint for the wrist, and once that's done and I've gotten the method down, I'll tackle the other hand. As you can see, I've started the palm part. The pieces look pretty radically different, but trust me - They started out the exact same way!

 

Day 6:

Well it isn't much of an update, but at least it's something. I'll be working a lot the next few days, so I did my best to try to squeeze some work in today.

Remember when I said the sandable resin primer would make my errors in sanding glaringly obvious?
Well, after a few quick swirls with a moderate grit...

IMGP1661 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Ouch! Was my sanding job really that uneven? All the little hollows are still filled with primer, so it made it very easy to see where I needed to keep sanding.
I had a lot of 350 grit sandpaper, so I grabbed it and got to it, sanding underwater since I had to do it indoors. Thank goodness for wet/dry sandpaper that won't fall apart when sanding submerged.

After a good half hour of more sanding, it wasn't quite perfect:

IMGP1662 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

But that's okay. Where his scales emerge is supposed to be rough and uneven, so all the little ridges and hollows that are left will mark the beginning of his lizardness. I didn't even bother re-sanding the ball joint, because it will rarely be visible, and I was afraid if I sanded it down too much trying to smooth out any uneven parts, it wouldn't fit into the joint as well as it currently does. It started raining, so I couldn't re-prime his legs, but assuming the weather is nice tomorrow or Wednesday, he'll get his last coat of primer and finally be passed off for airbrushing.

Once his legs were 'finished', I added the third and final joint to the fingers on his partially-done hand, and started fleshing out the palm of the other.

IMGP1667 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

The fingers will be in a different position on his left hand, so they won't be exactly the same. I also started the beginning of the ball joint on his right hand. I think I'm going to see if I can find some sturdy wire to embed in the Apoxie to make the wrist bar for the S-hook to attach to. I'm not sure how strong it will be if I sculpt it, and I'm not sure I'd be able to sculpt it evenly or smoothly. I thought about using the wire from a coat hanger, but I don't really want something that will rust. I wonder if heavy-gauge copper electrical wire would work? Hmmm.

I let it dry for a few hours, and then, wonder of wonders...

IMGP1679 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

His claws are added, and except for the ball joint (which still has to be measured, and I have to find something to use for the anchor if I'm not going to sculpt it) his right hand is finished!
Well, except for a soft sanding, but you get the idea. ^^

Just for a comparison, since his size has been mentioned... here's his new hand, in my hand:

IMGP1675 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

And his claws.

IMGP1677 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

There's still a few rough places on his fingers, so once his second hand is done, I'll thin some Apoxie with water and rub it into the cracks and bubbles where it's still that rough, before I sand everything down.

I'm still mulling over how to do his forearms, since I need to make those too. I'll probably look around at some craft stores, who knows - I'm sure there's something I can do.

 

At last, an update!

Thanks to the lovely GarekiPhoenix, Rune's legs are finally done!
She re-puttied a few spots for me, and put an absolutely lovely airbrush job on top...

IMGP1709 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Which means all that was left to do for his legs was grind up some pastels for blushing, and add some green paint. So I ground some pastels to powder on an ink grinding stone...

IMGP1711 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Blushed, and then applied the green paint with a dry paintbrush.

IMGP1712 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Two coats of green, one coat of Testors, two coats of Minwax Polycrylic, and one year after his arrival from Iplehouse, and Runey's legs are finally the way they should be!

IMGP1714 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Unfortunately, he can't stand - I think he could if he was sueded, but my big boy has always been very floppy. In a year of having him, even on his human legs, I've only gotten him to stand on his own maybe two or three times... ever. That's all right, though - It's not hard to slyly prop him against things for photo opportunities, and I'm just happy that he's finally turning into the man - Er, lizard - he's supposed to be.

Also on the unfortunate side of things is that even Minwax sealant can't save a paint job from accidents that happen during re-stringing...

IMGP1717 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Don't mind the color difference - As you can see in earlier pictures, it's an extremely close match, but in crappy indoors light, the Minwax sealant picks up more yellow light because of the glossiness of it.

As you can see, his knee popped out of joint while restringing him. The back of his thigh chewed right through the Minwax, Testors, and the Tamiya acrylics underneath, gosh darnit! Quite amusingly, though, the resin primer underneath didn't scratch at all. If only the primer came in a fleshtone! XD

All that's left now is to finish his hands, and sculpt new forearm pieces, and then my lizard man will be done.

 

Thank you all ^^

I decided NOT to paint or modify his human hands or arms simply because the character himself is able to shape-shift. He has a human-form masquerade to use, from time to time, and I wanted to be sure that I'd be able to keep that as a viable option! For now I've decided that until I can either get ahold of enough Apoxie to sculpt him some new forearms from scratch, or can see about ordering parts to mod from Iplehouse, I'll just make his lizard hands and he'll wear long sleeves to hide his arms. If he's wearing long sleeves, nobody will know his arms aren't done yet!

I haven't been able to do anything for quite a while because of some health issues I've had the past few months... everything dolly has been on hold while I recover and work extra hours to pay off the medical bills.
But now that I'm feeling better and things are leveling off with work, I hope to get back into it soon.

 

Ohoho... I have an update.

For now, there's not a whole lot I can do. I have plans to request forearm parts from Iplehouse later on, but I probably won't have the finances to do it until early next year. That's fine, because I'll be saving to order a variety of clothes for my EID (and my SID that's on the way!) so I'll be placing an Iple-order in the future regardless!

Over the past few months, I slowly worked on sculpting Rune's hands. Sometimes it was as slow as one finger a week, with a tedious process of sculpting, sanding, sculpting, re-sanding.

Today I did the final touch-up on his hands.

IMGP2180 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

The hand on the right is completely done at this point, the hand on the left has not yet received its final sanding. The dark red you see is 3M Bondo. Yes... the Bondo putty made for fixing dents on cars. It has long been a staple in customizing in other hobbies, and I couldn't get my Apoxie Sculpt thin enough to fill in the last ridges and dents, so I opted to use Bondo instead. It comes out of the tube as a thin putty, and dries very fast - We're talking five minutes before it's so thick it's unusable, so you have to work in very small amounts. What you see on his left hand is four applications of putty. In case anyone is wondering, I have seen plenty of Bondo used on resin without adverse effects, but the intensity of the color means it's not exactly ideal for BJDs. It's also considerably softer than Apoxie Sculpt once dry, meaning it's best for small jobs.

Still, it was perfect for what I needed. Something thin and fast-drying to smooth everything out, and also fill in the tiny little needle-holes from kitty teeth, from the night I learned my ridiculously tiny kitten can somehow get on top of the refrigerator.

IMGP2181 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

I left the palms mostly un-sanded, as you can see, because the roughness and my fingerprints add interesting texture to the clay... at least in my opinion. The ball-joints are a little out of round, but a practice stringing shows they fit nicely into his wrists, so there's no need to fret over trying to make them absolutely perfect.

I sanded his left hand after the above pictures:

IMGP2184 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

And once it had been sanded, I used white acrylics as a sort of primer to help mute the intense rust color of the Bondo.

IMGP2185 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

Brushing on a thick coat of white acrylic also served to help fill in really small creases, and smooth them out. Since Rune's hands are supposed to be dark, and I sculpted these myself, I threw regard for staining completely out the window and painted directly onto the Apoxie, no sealant required.

IMGP2183 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

One side at a time, his hands get painted and strung on a metal file to dry.

I blushed them with a mix of green and black pastel, and enhanced the runic scar on his left hand with a teeny tiny paint brush, and some darker green paint. I dusted green pastel over the top of it to mute the effect of the color, and then sealed the blushing with my new can of Citadel Purity Seal. All I can say about that is WOW. I've had fantastic luck with Testors in the past, better than most people I've read about even, and I strongly doubt that I'll ever go back to using Testors after that. It has a fantastic tooth and dried without any clouding, even in the ridiculous August humidity of the Mississippi river basin.

IMGP2186 by Myuuchan, on Flickr

All that's left to do is put on a top coat of Minwax polycrylic sealant for a more durable finish, dab some gloss onto his claws, and then put them on. Oh, and pick the dust specks off that the dog keeps managing to get on them as the paint is wet. But at that point, Rune will be as done as he's going to be until I can get spare forearms to paint from Iplehouse. The Minwax takes a lot longer to dry than the Purity Seal, so in a few days, I'll be back with pictures of Runey wearing his new hands.

 

Update 01/18/16

Jeez... it's been a long time. Four years and some change is a LONG time to leave a project unfinished. But life has finally calmed down enough that I can devote time to my dolls again, and this is the first major project I want to tackle. Before I started, I had a mod move the project to this folder, which should tell you something. The Project Journals section didn't even exist, last time I worked on this!

I've done a few small things over the past few years, like worked on getting better/more accurate wigs for him, and designing some custom glow-in-the-dark eyes and having them made. He also got some facial modifications, after he had a fight with a table and the floor won. But those things didn't "finish" him. This time, I'm hoping to knock it out.

So there are two things I need to do now: Finish the doll himself, then create a "standard" outfit for him.
I designed some clothing, which I'll post below. I'm hoping to shop for materials this week, both for mods and clothing, though I'll be doing repairs and mods before I start drawing patterns.

Here's what needs to be done:

• Redoing the leg mods.
A few years and a lot of dolls have given me more experience in modding, and also a better understanding of how jointing works, so I'll be reworking the knee joint for a better fit. Ideally, this will give him the ability to stand, but we'll see! EIDs are pretty top-heavy.

• Airbrushing parts to match.
Four years after starting this project, he's yellowed considerably, so this would need to be done whether I redid the knee mods or not.

• Figuring out an optional set of scaly arms.
Painting/modding his forearms still isn't an option here; I need to keep a human version, too. Either I figure out some kind of scaly sleeve to pull over his arms, or I'll have to sculpt new forearm parts. I asked Iple ages ago if I could buy a second set of forearms and was told no, so that option was ruled out before I started.

Then comes capturing the look I've created in the image below, which I figure will be broken down into steps for each piece:

• Wig
• Shirt
• Pants
• Jacket
• Armor
• Sword and scabbard

Should be easy, right? I'll have to design my own patterns for everything, so that'll be interesting.

And here's the outfit I'll be making.

Reference sheet: Rune by Lomilmalinde on deviantART

Next up: Shopping for materials!

 

Not much of an update, but it's something!
Gathering materials has gone okay, especially since my loved ones treated me to fabric for my birthday. I now have a variety of suedes to work with, though the blue was a remnant piece and I'm pretty sure I don't have enough to do what I need. I'm still trying to find more of it, but the fabric shops here haven't panned out for me yet.


Mod project by Myuuchan, on Flickr

I'll be using the slightly darker gray fabric at the top for his shirt, since it's much lighter weight and should make for some nice billowy sleeves. It's also got some interesting texturing on it, so it'll have some visual interest. The gray suede will be used for the yoke on his jacket and the inner thigh of the pants.
I'm still looking for things like buckles, buttons, studs and trims, but I'll be starting on patterns pretty soon, while I wait for the weather to be pleasant enough to start redoing his leg mods!

I also reached a resolution for having a second set of forearms for him! Before trying anything too difficult, I decided that even though they told me no before, I'd ask Iplehouse about getting an extra pair of arm pieces one more time. I sent them a message with photos of my doll and explained what I was trying to do, and after they saw it, they agreed to cast a pair of arm pieces from the old EID body for me! I know a number of people have asked Iplehouse for extra parts before and had their requests declined, so I'm really excited that they're willing to facilitate my project! It cost a good bit after shipping was factored in, but it'll be totally worth it in the end.

 

Finally, an update! I've been busy sewing dresses for my sister's wedding, so my own doll projects have been slow going, squeezing them in around that and my normal workload. But I have been making progress, a little at a time, and the first project finished is his wig.

Mod project by Myuuchan, on Flickr

It was made with synthetic fibers salvaged from a cosplay wig I didn't need any more. There's a video of the wigmaking process, too, which you can watch by clicking on the image above.

It's not bad, but I'm not totally happy with it, either... so I'll be revisiting the wig step in a week or two for a different look and style.

 

Thanks for asking! After the parts were primed, I recruited a friend with an airbrush to help me coat them first with white acrylic, then flesh tone matching the NS resin, then I brushed green paint over the top to blend with his fantasy feet. After they were painted I sealed with a normal clear coat and added blushing--I think I used Testors dullcote at the time. For extra durability I brushed a layer of Minwax polycrylic on top of that, then did another top coat of Testors to cut the shine down a bit. It was worth the extra effort for sure; all these years later, there's not a single chip out of that paint save what I messed up when it was fresh.

I'm going to have to redo it after I adjust the knee mods, so I'll try to document it better this time around.

 

Thank you! And yeah--it's tough. I think of the project being unfinished every time I pass my craft room door, but it wasn't until now that I could get back to it. I'm planning to finish all my dolls now that I can, though they might not be in order of arrival. I'm getting ready to head out back to work on this big guy's arms after I eat lunch, so today I'm just counting my blessings that I can be home and have free time on such a beautiful day!